Posted - 07/14/2007 : 4:47:26 PM Hi,I have a ? and I hope it makes sense.I'm trying to use up some scraps by making a mitared squares blanket. I've never seen SSk explained from a lefthanded perspective, But hte way I've been doing it is:I slip 1st stitch, from R to L, as to K then slip 2nd st as to K. Then stick R needle into the 2 st from the right to the left so that the right needle is infront of the left, and knit.Does this sound about right?Down the center of the square where the decreases are, the K2tog looks like a row of braids. The SSK looks like a row of dashes. Is that what it should look like, or is something not quite right here?Thanks

Knitting Fairy

"Learning how to knit was a snap.It was learning how to stop that nearly destroyed me." Erma Bombeck

It took me years and years of trial efforts to work out that there is absolutely no knitting triumph I can achieve that my husband will think is worth being woken up for. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

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knitting fairy

Posted - 07/15/2007 : 4:39:30 PM

quote:Originally posted by maribelaprn

For me, my K2TOGs lean left and my SSKs lean right because I'm knitting in the opposite direction than for right-handed knitters. When it really matters, I reverse the instructions and do a SSK instead of the K2TOG and a K2TOG instead of a SSK.

But what's really going on here has nothing to do with left handed versus right handed, but rather it is an issue with SSK in general. This link to knittinghelp.com addresses the issue of getting the SSK to lie flat and appear more like the decrease obtained from K2TOG. Note that in the first example, the author says that you knit the stitches thru the back loops, not the front. That's different than most instructions.

I sat with these instructions and made some test swatches to see what works for me and in what direction my own decreases slanted and what worked best for me to get my SSKs and K2TOGs to look similar.

LOL you fixed a problem for me I didn't realize I had! my K2TOGs lean left and my SSKs lean right also. That makes sense now that I think about it, since I'm knitting in the opposite direction.

Thanks for the link. Slipping 1 as to K and one as to purl made a big difference in the way it looked, so I'm glad you showed me that.

Knitting Fairy

"Learning how to knit was a snap.It was learning how to stop that nearly destroyed me." Erma Bombeck

It took me years and years of trial efforts to work out that there is absolutely no knitting triumph I can achieve that my husband will think is worth being woken up for. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

maribelaprn

Posted - 07/15/2007 : 05:46:32 AM For me, my K2TOGs lean left and my SSKs lean right because I'm knitting in the opposite direction than for right-handed knitters. When it really matters, I reverse the instructions and do a SSK instead of the K2TOG and a K2TOG instead of a SSK.

But what's really going on here has nothing to do with left handed versus right handed, but rather it is an issue with SSK in general. This link to knittinghelp.com addresses the issue of getting the SSK to lie flat and appear more like the decrease obtained from K2TOG. Note that in the first example, the author says that you knit the stitches thru the back loops, not the front. That's different than most instructions.

I sat with these instructions and made some test swatches to see what works for me and in what direction my own decreases slanted and what worked best for me to get my SSKs and K2TOGs to look similar.

If you knit transferring all the stitches from R to L, then your k2tog will lean like thisTo ssk, you slip the first stitch, all by itself from the R needle to the L needle as if you were going to knit it, then do the same with the next stitch, then put the R needle back in UNDER the L needle and knit the two (now twisted) stitches together. This will make them lean this way /

Ssp is just like ssk, except you purl the two stitches together instead of knitting them.

-WendyM

Barb in AZ

YarnGoddess

Posted - 07/14/2007 : 6:04:07 PM SSK is a left-slanting decrease, so if the resulting stitch leans to the left, then you're doing it right, er, correctly.

ElizabethZipper & Diva

A sense of humor can help you tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, overlook the unattractive and smile through the unbearable.